@josephkenm My mistake, thanks! Edited my comment
2024 Strength Goals - 2nd year lifting
- Thread starter naate
- Start date
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- female fitness
@naate I’m 41 and don’t remember when I didn’t lift, besides pregnancy or injury, it’s just been phases of different strength training. Machines or hand weights at home or mostly barbells or strength focused or body building focused. Really leaned in when my youngest was 2 - so 10 years ago.
Goal this year is consistency. The older you get, the more you have to honor your joints. Any injury can mean weeks, months or the rest of your life paying for it. Getting big or lifting heavier or max range of motion aren’t goals that pair well with achieving consistency.
2022 had a plyometrics related knee injury that set back my running training. 2023 I barely ran (and avoided side-jump stupidity in the gym) but had elbow tendinitis (overdid it on reverse grip rows) and now nursing a sore shoulder (stupid game of beach volleyball, not worth it!)
I would love to achieve consistency by getting through the year without a significant joint injury. Feels impossible.
Goal this year is consistency. The older you get, the more you have to honor your joints. Any injury can mean weeks, months or the rest of your life paying for it. Getting big or lifting heavier or max range of motion aren’t goals that pair well with achieving consistency.
2022 had a plyometrics related knee injury that set back my running training. 2023 I barely ran (and avoided side-jump stupidity in the gym) but had elbow tendinitis (overdid it on reverse grip rows) and now nursing a sore shoulder (stupid game of beach volleyball, not worth it!)
I would love to achieve consistency by getting through the year without a significant joint injury. Feels impossible.
@naate I’m not really sure what you mean by realistic strength goals, only you can determine that.
If your primary goal is to get stronger, follow a reputable program that will help you. Go on strengthlevel and see what where your strength is currently at, and maybe see what you want to achieve from there?
Set numbers as a goal, whatever that may be.
I’m coming up on the 1 year mark in Feb. My goal is to hit 300lbs deadlifts/squats, and 135lbs bench. I’m also going to let my gym owner know next week that I’m going to register for a meet he’s hosting in the Summer - I told him the first time I joined that my goal is to compete. A few weeks back he kept asking me when I was gonna do my first meet lol…
If your primary goal is to get stronger, follow a reputable program that will help you. Go on strengthlevel and see what where your strength is currently at, and maybe see what you want to achieve from there?
Set numbers as a goal, whatever that may be.
I’m coming up on the 1 year mark in Feb. My goal is to hit 300lbs deadlifts/squats, and 135lbs bench. I’m also going to let my gym owner know next week that I’m going to register for a meet he’s hosting in the Summer - I told him the first time I joined that my goal is to compete. A few weeks back he kept asking me when I was gonna do my first meet lol…
@lena27 I’m mostly wondering what the normal range for someone in their second year of lifting would be. So like I added probably a bit less than 100lb to my squat last year (I don’t know what my 1 rep max was to start - so 100lb is probably a high estimate but I have no idea how much I actually added). But like, I doubt I’d be able to add another 100ish lbs in my second year. So would it be reasonable to add say 50lb?
Alternatively my squat is currently 1.3x body weight. What kind of increase would I be able to expect. 2x body weight sounds like it would be a lot, whereas 1.5x body weight doesn’t sound like it would be much - but since I don’t expect strength increases to be linear anymore it might be reasonable.
I’d love to hit a 135lb bench someday. I estimated that I added ~40lb to my bench this year. So we’ll see how long it takes me to add another 45lb
.
Alternatively my squat is currently 1.3x body weight. What kind of increase would I be able to expect. 2x body weight sounds like it would be a lot, whereas 1.5x body weight doesn’t sound like it would be much - but since I don’t expect strength increases to be linear anymore it might be reasonable.
I’d love to hit a 135lb bench someday. I estimated that I added ~40lb to my bench this year. So we’ll see how long it takes me to add another 45lb
.@naate I made the experience that it does not make sense to set specific goals. For me this lead to lifting to much weight, hurting my back and having to pause lifting for some months. All because my ego wanted to try the higher weight i was not ready for.
I do currently a self-modified Version of the nSuns program and it helps me appreciating small steps. As you said, as a more experiemced lifter, the improvements aren't as big and fast as at the beginning.
You can not predict how effective your training will be. You can just try your best.
I have a long term goal of bench pressing 50kg(~100lbs), but i just don't know i i will reach it next year. Currently i can do 45 kg for 4 reps at 53 kg bodyweight.
I would expext that you will be able to improve your benchpress and deadlift more as they seem a bit underdeveloped compared to your squats
I do currently a self-modified Version of the nSuns program and it helps me appreciating small steps. As you said, as a more experiemced lifter, the improvements aren't as big and fast as at the beginning.
You can not predict how effective your training will be. You can just try your best.
I have a long term goal of bench pressing 50kg(~100lbs), but i just don't know i i will reach it next year. Currently i can do 45 kg for 4 reps at 53 kg bodyweight.
I would expext that you will be able to improve your benchpress and deadlift more as they seem a bit underdeveloped compared to your squats
@heatherk Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I did definitely do some ego lifting last year that I probably shouldn’t have (I did this weight last week - why am I struggling so much this week. I said, having been in a calorie deficit for the last 3 months 
). Luckily no injuries - I’ve always been fairly careful about that. I started lifting to help with my back pain so injuring myself would be counter productive.
My #1 goal will be to stop the ego lifting and going close to failure. It makes way more sense to lower the weights when I need to and make sure that every rep is full range of motion with perfect technique.
I have naturally huge quads - so I credit my squat to them. There was a point where I was squatting more than my 6ft tall husband
. I haven’t been as consistent with deadlifting because I took a weightlifting class and we would only deadlift every other week - but we were squatting and benching every week. I’m pretty sure I could deadlift more at the beginning of the class than at the end.
Thank you for your advice. And good luck reaching your bench goal!
). Luckily no injuries - I’ve always been fairly careful about that. I started lifting to help with my back pain so injuring myself would be counter productive.My #1 goal will be to stop the ego lifting and going close to failure. It makes way more sense to lower the weights when I need to and make sure that every rep is full range of motion with perfect technique.
I have naturally huge quads - so I credit my squat to them. There was a point where I was squatting more than my 6ft tall husband
. I haven’t been as consistent with deadlifting because I took a weightlifting class and we would only deadlift every other week - but we were squatting and benching every week. I’m pretty sure I could deadlift more at the beginning of the class than at the end.Thank you for your advice. And good luck reaching your bench goal!
